Central and peripheral nervous system underpinnings of moral elevation PublicDeposited

Descriptions

The present study characterized physiological responsivity during moral elevation, or elevation, a prosocial emotional state triggered by witnessing displays of altruism and moral beauty. Participants watched video stimuli that induced elevation, or amusement as a control condition, while heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), skin conductance responses (SCR), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity were monitored. During elevation, RSA and SCR increased, mPFC activity decreased, and HR marginally increased. The changes in RSA and mPFC activity were significantly different from amusement. The mPFC deactivation was correlated with prosocial feelings during elevation induction. Furthermore, dorsal mPFC deactivation was stronger than ventral mPFC deactivation, which is in keeping with previous findings on social cognition and implies a reduction in neural processing of social-evaluative threat. Genetic and personality predictors of physiological elevation response were also examined. Overall, results indicate that dual activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems occurs during elevation, and that neurophysiological responses are parsimonious with previous understanding of the prosocial cognitive effects of elevation.